Is the real purpose of our body different from God’s point of view? God created us in His image, with a body, soul and spirit. When a believer dies their soul and spirit go to God in heaven, while the body decays in the ground.
Why did Adam need a body, he could have just been soul and spirit? Our body is more than something that keeps us anchored to the earth and the temporary dwelling place of the soul and spirit. Our body is proof of our absolute uniqueness. With eight billion people on the earth, there are no two people exactly the same. Even identical twins have unique fingerprints, among other things.
Purpose of Our Body
The human body provides the conditions necessary for life in a natural world. Adam needed a body so he could interact with the physical world and know life in a tangible way. Our body allows us to enjoy all the benefits of life on earth.
Just as our body has a natural growth path, so too our soul can grow and develop its consciousness and awareness of God. Our earthly walk is like an apprenticeship, in which we have a free will. We can be so ego-driven as to deny the existence of an unseen God and see ourselves as a god. Or, we can enter into a relationship with our Creator.
In a Satan energised world that is so dark, ‘We are the light of the world’, Matthew 5:14-16. We are a witness to the world of God’s grace and mercy.
Our Bodies are Wonderfully Made
The Psalmist wrote ‘We are fearfully and wonderfully made,’ Psalm 139:14. The human body is a complex, highly organized, and sophisticated. The makers of AI keep trying, but they cannot totally emulate God’s masterpiece.
Here are just a few amazing things about the body. If you live to the age of 70, your heart will beat around 2.5 million times.
Every minute you shed over 30,000 dead-skin cells. The entire surface of your skin is replaced every month, which means you have around 1,000 different skins in your lifetime.
Your tongue is covered with around 8,000 tastebuds, each containing up to 100 cells. Your eyes blink around 20 times a minute, which is over ten million times a year. While your heart is a vital organ, the brain and the nervous system is the most critical part in the human body.
The list goes on and on about how wonderfully complex you are, yet it is only temporal. ‘You are dust, and to the dust you shall return’, Genesis 3:19.
Immortality
Humans have long searched for immortality and go to ridiculous lengths in an attempt to achieve this. The Renaissance philosopher Montaigne said “Death has us by the scruff of the neck at every moment.” The soul can become corrupt, as seen in the Garden of Eden, Genesis 3. Yet, man has the choice to receive the gift of eternal life from the Creator and be Born Again, John 3:15.
When a person dies, believing in God as the Old Testament saints did, or accepting Christ as New Testament saints do, their body goes to the grave. Their spirit and soul go to heaven. All men have immortality, either in the presence of God, John 5:24, or eternally separated from God, Romans 6:23.
The Rapture
The secret every Christian carries deep in their heart, is that very soon Jesus Christ will return to catch away those who are His body, His Bride, the true believers, 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17. We are living in the same conditions Noah experienced prior to the flood, Genesis 6. It was a Satan energized world, with only a small minority of the global population accepting the need to acknowledge God.
The Bride will be caught away. The dead in Christ shall rise first, then those who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air’ 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17. We can’t imagine the chaos that will proceed the pouring out of the wrath of God, Revelation 16:1.
A Resurrected Body
At the time of the rapture all those who have lived and believe in God Almighty, from Adam forward, will come back and collect an immortal, spiritual body, 1 Corinthians 15:53.
People such as Moses, Abraham, David, and New Testament saints, have spent millennia walking in heaven as a spirit and soul. Peter, James and John recognized Moses and Elijah when they appeared with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration, Matthew 17:1-9. These two Old Testament giants came back to encourage Jesus in His forthcoming ordeal. The sinless Son of Man was about to submit Himself to the hands of mere mortals. He would suffer and die the cruellest death man can devise, to pay the debt for sin, Colossians 2:14.
While we are on earth we live in a natural body, after the image of Adam. We will later receive a spiritual body, after the image of the resurrected Jesus, 1 Corinthians 15:42-49.
The Way Back to God
Christ died and rose again with an eternal, spiritual body, proving once and for all His victory over sin and death. Man was never designed to die. It was only when Adam disobeyed the Word of God, that sin entered the entire human race, Genesis 3, and the righteous penalty for sin is death.
Jesus not only paid the price for all mankind’s sin but made the way for man to enter back into full fellowship with God, John 14:6. Adam’s fellowship with God was only fleeting, but the redeemed saints of God will have eternal fellowship with God.
His Body
Christ returned to heaven and for the next 2,000 years, His body, the church, grew and developed its relationship with God. Man had tried to reach God through sacrifice, but that could not cleanse man’s innate sin nature.
This sojourn on earth prepares believers for an eternity with God, through fiery trials. Just as an athlete trains in the natural to develop his or her strengths, the believer is to develop spiritual muscle. Believers are to ‘Attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fulness of Christ’, Ephesians 4:13.
Resurrected Saints
Why do saints need a resurrected body? They haven’t been walking around heaven ‘half-baked’ since their physical death, as was proved when the disciples recognized Moses and Elijah. So, what is the real purpose of this new body?
Christ will return to set up His millennial kingdom of peace on earth, ruling from the New Jerusalem in a new heaven and earth, Revelation 21:1. With Him will be three companies. There will be the Old Testament saints, the Bride – New Testament saints, and the multitude who accept Christ during the seven-year Tribulation, Revelation 7:9. Redeemed Israel will also take her rightful place, which God determined from before the foundation of the earth. All will reign with Christ.
Jesus had an immortal body the disciples could touch and feel, John 20:27-31. He shared a meal with Cleopas and his wife, Luke 24:13ff, yet could disappear in an instant, or go through a wall. Our resurrected or changed, spiritual body will interact with the natural world in a way we can barely comprehend. It will fully reflect the glory of its Creator. The stage is all set. We eagerly await the trumpet call. The end will happen in 1/10th of the blink of an eye. Make sure you are prepared for your Bridegroom.
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